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Shining Example: A glimmering suite in Sweden’s historic Sala Silver Mine drills down to a new level of eco-friendly design.
By Mary Scoviak
The nearest tree is 500 ft. above the single luxury suite in Sweden’s Sala Silver Mine. Yet this one-room accommodation, tucked away in a rocky cavern, speaks volumes about what it means to be green now. It shows how far hospitality design has moved beyond just working with nature when it’s convenient, as in a lush resort that protects local flora or an urban new build that’s sustainable from the ground up. Behind the silvery furniture and candelabra of this underworld sanctuary is a down-to-earth message that eco-friendly design needs to push past a goal of being non-invasive and start giving back.
Opened in 2006 and renovated in 2010, the suite is the latest element in the transformation of a shuttered mine into an international attraction. Like the banquet hall, restaurants and conference rooms that share space in the restored mine, it’s a conduit between Sala’s 500-year history as one of the world’s most important silver producers and a modern reality in which tourism is the new currency. “We wanted to connect the past with life today but still make the look compelling enough to feel right in the future,” says Magnus Svedjemarker, chairperson of the interior design firm Wohnzimmer (Stockholm). “Ulrika Andrén, our interior designer, hit on the idea of bringing silver back into the mine as a means of expressing that.”
Introducing the shimmer of silver made the solemn organic environment a plus. The reflective and refractive properties of metallic lamps and candleholders, sleek, silvery furnishings and shining mirror frames render the starkness of the surrounding rock dramatic rather than oppressive. Illumination from chandelier-style candelabra set on accent tables sprays a wash of golden light onto the ceiling and arching cavern sides. Oversized candleholders stationed at the entry spread a warm glow around the lower half of the room. No integral changes were made to the space. All of the furniture and lighting were light enough to be transported via the existing elevator and can be removed just as easily, leaving no permanent handprint.
The combination of cool shine and fiery lighting also solved the problem of directing the focus in a space with no walls, no straight lines and no windows. “There was nothing to use as a structural background for the design,” says Svedjemarker. “But it was precisely the aspects that made the natural shell so challenging that made it so interesting. It would have been easier in some ways to mask it, but that would have defeated our purpose. Design has to contribute to the earth, to the experience, in a positive way.”
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